Originally Posted by
joejones
Be aware that if you keep flying in and out as a "temporary visitor," you will get harder and harder questions from Japanese immigration over time, as they will come to suspect that you are illegally working in the country. This happened to one friend of mine who was living with his wife in Tokyo while looking for work for nearly a year. The first couple of times he got minimal questioning, but on his third entry he was taken aside and interrogated for a while.
As long as you aren't making money in Japan, you should ultimately have no problems other than occasional delays at the airport.
Just curious why your friend didn't apply for spouse status or a dependent status (if his wife was not Japanese but living in Tokyo). The dependent status would of let him stay in Japan without the expensive need to leave and return to Japan while he searched for a full time job. He could of also worked some part-time gigs on the dependent status as well (with an additional endorsement from Immigration).